Find the original number divided

Question: Three friends divided some bullets equally. After all of them shot 4 bullets the total number of bullets remaining is equal to the bullets each had after division. Find the original number divided.

Answer:

18 Assume that initial there were 3*X bullets. So they got X bullets each after division. All of them shot 4 bullets. So now they have (X - 4) bullets each. But it is given that,after they shot 4 bullets each, total number of bullets remaining is equal to the bullets each had after division i.e. X Therefore, the equation is 3 * (X - 4) = X 3 * X - 12 = X 2 * X = 12 X = 6